TECH CRUNCH - Aug 28 - Avid Life Media CEO Noel Biderman is stepping down. The company describes Biderman’s departure as a “mutual agreement". The company will be led by senior management until a new CEO can be found.

BUSINESS INSIDER - Aug 27 - This month, hackers of AshleyMadison.com began to leak internal company data online, which also includes sensitive documents and the emails of CEO Noel Biderman. Included within Biderman's email correspondence is a "Management Presentation" for Grindr, created in June 2015. Accoring to the presentation, Grindr is expected to generate $38.1M this year. By the end of 2018, it predicts annual revenues ~$77M. Grindr claims that the average daily time its users spend on the app is 54 minutes daily, compared to Facebook's 42.1 minutes.

FINANCIAL POST - Aug 28 - In April, Ashley Madison's head of international relations Christoph Kraemer estimated the company's value at $1B, pegging the ratio of men to women in the 30-45 age range at ~50-50. But a data analysis by the Gawker affiliate Gizmodo revealed there were only 5.5M female profiles and only ~12K of them displayed evidence of being connected to actual women who used the site. 10K accounts were registered to ashleymadison.com email addresses, while ~81K appear to have been created on an Ashley Madison computer, based on their IP addresses. If those allegations are true that's likely the last nail in the coffin for the site, said dating company consultant Mark Brooks. "I think people would have forgiven (the security breach). I think they would have gotten over that, as long as they put safeguards in place so it doesn’t happen again," Brooks said. "This, they don't move on from. This means this brand is not trustworthy. That’s a big deal."

Match Must Use Size To Overcome Challenges Facing Public Dating Services

DEAL REPORTER - Aug 24 - OPW - Aug 24 - As The Match Group moves toward an IPO, it must use its size advantage to overcome the difficulties that have plagued other dating companies that have gone public. FriendFinder traded on NASDAQ and was delisted in 2013 for failing to trade above the USD 1 level. Zoosk filed for an IPO in 2014, intending to raise more than USD 100m, but withdrew the application citing unfavorable market conditions. In the past 2 years, shares of Snap Interactive have not been above the USD 1 mark with stock plunging 85%, and Spark Networks has seen its stock decline 60%, to USD 3.11. Chinese dating firm Jiayuan International has seen its US-listed stock rise 22% in the last year, however, their success is partly a by-product of China's booming economy. "Match's size will be an advantage over other publicly traded dating entities," said Mark Brooks, an industry consultant with Courtland Brooks. Its scale and brand awareness means it probably pays much less to acquire new users. “This is very clearly a game of size,” Brooks asserted, adding that Match.com does not have to pay search giant Google for every new member because it has built a brand through time, helped by TV and radio advertising.

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AM Members Seek Over $1B In Lawsuits Across U.S. And Canada

WASHINGTON TIMES - Aug 25 - In U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, attorneys say in a 27-page complaint that Avid failed its obligations to abide by best practices and industry standards concerning digital security. In the Central District of California, attorneys filed a similar suit and asked the court to grant class-action status so other members impacted by the "nightmare" brought on by hackers can see relief. Avid Life Media has until Sept. 14 to answer accusations that it failed to safeguard sensitive user data that was dumped online last week. Two Canadian firms said last week that they were bringing a class-action suit against Avid seeking upwards of $760M in damages. Even if Avid agreed to award $100 each to half of Ashley Madison's roughly 37M customers, the company would still stand to lose nearly $2B. Avid earned around $115M in revenue during 2014, according to court filings.

TELEGRAPH - Aug 25 - Despite the app's original reputation for wanton hookups, Tinder continues to get bigger and more diverse. Speaking last year, Tinder's former CMO Justin Mateen said "Early on, over 90% of our user base was aged between 18 and 24. Today, that number is about 51%. 13-17 year-olds are now over 7%, 25-32 year-olds are about 32%, 35-44 is about 6.5% and the remainder are older than 45.” Even those small percentages represent huge communities – with an estimated 50 million users, that 3.5% over 45 segment is still nearly 2 million.

Courtland Brooks - We help Internet dating companies grow. Strategy, PR and Business Development services.Contact mark@courtlandbrooks.com.___________________________________________________________________

Plenty Of Fish Targetted By Cyber Criminals

DAILYSTAR.CO.UK - Aug 21 - People who visited PlentyOfFish in the last few days are likely to have had malicious spying software installed on their computers, which would have then tracked all of their keystrokes. This means hackers can see everything a person is typing – including when they log in to their online banking.

MARKET WATCH - Aug 24 - The MeetMe app can be downloaded from Amazon Appstore by Android phone and tablet users. "We are excited to make MeetMe available to the millions of people who use the Amazon Appstore," said Geoff Cook, CEO of MeetMe. "With this additional download channel, MeetMe becomes even more accessible and, we believe, will be able to help even more users find new people with whom to chat and connect."

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